


Bloodstream

by edourado



Series: Hell's Kitchen Chronicles [32]
Category: Daredevil (TV)
Genre: F/M, Not Fluff, Oneshot, Romance, angsty, karedevil - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-27
Updated: 2016-07-27
Packaged: 2018-07-27 03:27:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,264
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7601596
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/edourado/pseuds/edourado
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After a few years, Matt pays Karen a visit</p>
            </blockquote>





	Bloodstream

“Should I wait up for you?” she asked, swirling her drink around. Mascal. They always had it.

Matt stopped for a moment, before turning his head slightly back, towards the living room.

They were back in New York - he never could be away for too long - and the whole place smelled of dust, still air and cleaning products.

Elektra let out a small sigh and finished her drink, the glass landing delicately on the coffee table while she got up and walked towards the bedroom.

Matt walked out the front door. 

.:.

It was a good house. Nice neighborhood, nice street, nice front lawn. Good security system. She slept with the window open.

When he climbed it, he was hit in the face with that scent he had almost forgotten about. All the things that made Karen, all the things that he had, once, learned to expect, anticipate. Plus a shampoo he didn’t recognize, the traces of another man - her husband -, anesthesia, medication and rubbing alcohol.

She was back from the hospital, appendix missing. She dozed in and out of consciousness, lying there alone on the bed she had been sharing with the man she had married two years ago.

Matt walked in, made his way to her side and lowered the hood of his sweater, kneeling by her, fishing for her hand. 

She opened her eyes slowly, still a bit dizzy from her surgery, but fighting through it.

Matt took her hand to his lips, kissing her knuckles, feeling his emotions threaten to get the best of him. 

When she focused on him, he heard her heartbeat speed up. He braced himself for when she would pull her hand away, ask what he was doing there, back away from him, ask, demand, protest.

She did pull her hand away, but instead of retreating, it cupped his face gently, fingers light, thumb caressing, and he leaned into it, his lips on her palm, her fingers over his closed eyes, his eyebrows, down the bridge of his nose, up to swipe his hair back.

“Hi.”

Four years, it had been, since they last saw each other. Four years since he left her, since he took the easy way out and went away with Elektra, since he came back and didn’t call her. Four years and she said “hi”.

“Heard you were sick”, he said, his voice smaller than he expected.

“Just a burst appendix. I’m fine, now.”

He shook his head and took her hand in his again, feeling her wedding and engagement rings on her finger, trying to ignore them. 

Getting up from the floor, he sat on the mattress and leaned in, pressing his forehead against hers. And there they sat for a minute, in silence, breathing in and out and he listened to her heartbeat, her breathing and the TV her husband fell asleep to on the couch, downstairs, surely not wanting to wake her up while she rested.

For years, he told himself that he was happy for her, that it was best, that she was fine, she was loved, safe. He repeated it to himself over and over and over, waiting for the day he would start believing it. It never came.

“I love you”, he said, suddenly, feeling his throat closing up and his eyes start to burn a little. Karen’s hand went back to his face, the other one catching his. “Always have, always will. Always, always.”

She breathed in and out a little harder and he caressed her hair. “I’m always gonna be in love with you”, he went on, whispering, running his nose on her cheek, the lightest touch of his lips on hers. “No matter how long it is, no matter what happens.”

Her hands were weak still, but they held his face and her thumbs caressed his cheeks while she held him.

“You are the love of my life”, he confessed, out loud, what he had known since the day he left.

With a heavy breath, she lifted her face slightly, fingers curling on his hair, and he opened his mouth on hers, kissing her slowly, pouring his soul, soaking on the feel of her, cataloguing every sensation for when he didn’t have her anymore. To maybe pretend it was her the next time he kissed someone else.

“I’m sorry”, he said, finally, for everything. 

“Shh. No,” she whispered, holding his face, kissing him like she used to do, before.

When he moved to rain light kisses over her cheeks, she lifted her arms and hugged him to her.

“Stay.”

While he moved to lie by her side, supporting her head on his shoulder, arms around her, he felt truly content or the first time in years. 

Karen breathed in and out, hand on his chest, fist closed around the fabric of his hoodie, and that weak gesture would have kept him there forever. 

The medication she was on was heavy, she was drifting off again soon enough.

“I miss you everyday”, she said in that familiar whisper and he closed his eyes, catching her hand in his, lacing their fingers together. 

“Sleep. You have to rest.”

.:.

Karen woke up to the smell of warm bread, cream cheese, tea and fruit.

“Morning, sunshine”, said her husband, and a soft kiss was placed on her forehead. “How are you feeling?”

_ Matt.  _ His name was the first coherent thought on her mind and she blinked the sleep away, looking around her, for him, and then to the beautiful breakfast tray in front of her.

“I know it’s not coffee, but I made it sweet. And there’s no bacon, but I was able to clear some cream cheese for you”, he was saying, and Karen smiled up at him. 

“It’s great. Thank you.”

“You’re welcome. I’ll get you a fresh glass of water. Be back in a sec.”

When her husband left, she took a deep breath and looked at the open window, wondering if she had dreamed the whole thing. But then she realized she was holding something on the hand still under the covers. 

Lifting it, she teared up at the sight of the black mask she had been clutching. He was wearing it when she saw him -  _ him _ , all of him, not just the lawyer - for the first time. It was the first glimpse she had of the real man. 

Bringing it to her nose, she smiled at the familiar smell of him. 

"I love you too”, she whispered to it, keeping it against her nose and her lips, trying to stop the tears from falling, breathing in and out, reigning herself in. 

Karen lowered the mask and hid it under the covers again, by her hip, when he came back in, holding a big glass of water, the Starbucks one he had bought her on their second date as a charming joke.

“There you go.”

She smiled at him and took the glass. Looking at her hand, she raised her brows and turned her palm away from her, to better look. 

“Something wrong?”

She blinked, a breath stuck in her throat, and tried not to smile. 

“I lost my wedding ring.”

“What?’

He took her hand and saw the solitary engagement ring on her finger. The one, simpler gold band that usually was with it, was gone. 

“Oh, no”, he said. “Any idea where you might have left it?”

She shook her head, knowing she didn’t lose it. 

Matt had a part of her, now, and she had one of him.

Karen shrugged and decided she was fine with it. 

It was his, anyway. 


End file.
